EXTRAORDINARY WORK.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2724, 28 December 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

EXTRAORDINARY WORK.

dsn of the most extraordinary cases of work done by a cripple is that of John Carter, a velvet weaver, who fell from a tree, broke his neck, and yet survived, paralysed from his collar-bone downward. He had no feeling in his body or limbs, aud could even be pinched or bruised without knowing anything about it. For fifteen years he lived in bed. at first reading, and then painting, holding his brush in hia lips. llis copy was hung by tapes from the roof of his bed ; and after a time he had a desk made by a friend under his own directions, on which his drawing paper was secured by pins. It stood beside his right shoulder, about six inches from his face. The pencil with which he drew the outline was placed in bis mouth, and guided by his lips. The rest of his work was crrried out by very fine camel's hair brushes, the cheap ones which may 'tie bought in a country shop. After years of patient endeavour he could copy accurately, line for line, the finest engravings ; and these copies fetched very good pi ices even in America, whither many were taken. Considering that no line once made could be erased, and that he could not measure or space out his work, the accuracy which distinguished him was wonderful. His masterpiece was a cony of a "Virgin and child," after Albeit Durer, in which every line is as photographed, true in the direction, weight, and twell, aud delicate as silk, particularly in the veil, which loses nothing in the transparency- To draw such lines on the hard metal is not easy, but to draw them with a brush held between the lips, on paper resting on a little desk in bed, i;i enough to make us wonder of what humanity is capable, if only directed with perseverance. Surely the moral is that I hose who have all their powers ought, not to be discouraged by the little obstacles or even the greater ones which they are sure to meet.